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Name: Linda Wright
City: Kingsport
Region: Tennessee
Country: USA
Email: editor@worldwidebluegrass.com
Website: www.localgrass.com
Biography:
Born a native of Bristol Tennessee, I currently reside in a small town just south of Bristol, called Kingsport Tennessee. Like a lot of other “GrassHeads”, love of Bluegrass music and tradition was instilled in me early as a child who’s father had an acoustic guitar love, and was exposed to jam sessions in the house, consisting of people my father worked with, and knew, who could while away the hours on a Friday or Saturday night, picking and singing. The music influence seated itself early, but wasn’t limited to Bluegrass as I grew older; I realized that I had a love for jazz piano, and horns, and growing up in the 80’s even have a little corner of the soul that is a rocker. After an early divorce of my parents, my Mom made sure I was in church regularly, and I quickly realized the church choir and music program held a special charm for me. In my teens, I began to sing A cappella with two ladies in the Youth Department at Central Baptist Church in Bristol Virginia. We came together so fast that there was no time for a name, so we just called ourselves the “Central Baptist Trio”. Our group sang together at Central Baptist for a number of years until life events took us down separate paths, and left little time for singing. Over the spread of 25 (plus) years, the ladies have come together for special events and revival meetings. I never learned to read music, but with the two other ladies I sang with, learned harmony “by ear”. The Bluegrass sounds heard as a child, and the blended voices of the Trio were my two first loves, and still dwell in the soul today.
I count myself lucky to live in the Bristol and Kingsport area as they border SouthWestern Virginia, and were a perfect area to grow up in as a true-blue GrassHead. The Carter Family Fold is just up the road in Hiltons Virginia, Bristol is rich in musical heritage, and is known as the Birthplace Of Country Music. Many, many great talented names in Bluegrass hail from all around me, and the music venues are rich. Each summer, Bristol hosts the Rhythm and Roots Festival, and the Earhart Bluegrass Festival which is held near the Bristol Motor Speedway. Kingsport has a summer music concert series, called Bluegrass on Broad, which was started in a corner HotDog stand, and has grown to include some of the most famous names in Bluegrass, and hosts some of the finest local talent anywhere. Not only does the area hold the well-known venues, but it also has lots of ‘out of the way’ places that are best kept secrets, and deliver blissful jam sessions into wee hours. After being invited to visit some of the nooks and crannies, and little known places, I decided I must tell people about them! Excellent, talented musicians dedicate much of their lives to playing the music they love, and I wanted to share both their passion and mine, so I founded a website for Bluegrass in the area called “LocalGrass.com”. I enjoy working the website for the labor of love that it is, and hope many more good things will spring from it to recognize local talent. I’m currently active in a music preservation group called the Appalachian Cultural Music Association, and hope to be able to realize a dream to work in Bluegrass promotion on a larger scale. I’m very proud and honored to have been accepted and to have opportunity to work with the fine Team at WorldWideBluegrass.com. You probably wont hear my singing or my (feeble attempts!) at mandolin playing on the air, but I hope you will enjoy the show each week as much as I enjoy doing it. |
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